I just bought a 19liter Cornelius keg. I still have to buy the gas cylinder for it. I live in Dublin and bought the keg from U.K. I was informed that they could not supply the gas cylinder because they were not allowed to ship them across water. I found a supplier in Ireland. They told me that they can supply me with pure CO2 or a mixture of 50% CO2 and 50% nitrogen. Which would be better.

I've never used kegs, but from what I understand, the mix is good if you want to have something like Guinness on tap - that smooth, creamy head is a product of being served with nitrogen. Naturally, you can serve any beer style that way, but Guinness is one of the few commercial breweries I can think of that do it. CO2 alone will get you the fizzy carbonation.

You can serve any beer with a CO2/N mixture, however you cannot easily use this gas to force carbonate. I say easily, because it may be possible using a carbonation stone, but I would think you would not have a very robust carbonation.

It seemed to me when I was in Ireland all of the beers were served using CO2/N and all beers were poured from stout faucets. The difference was that Carlings, Bud and and like beers had the restrictor plate removed from the faucet and Guinness and like beers had the plate intact.

So if you want to use beer gas, you can prime kegs with corn sugar like you would with bottles (natural carbonation).

The first thing to do is ask if they will allow you to fill either gas in the same cylinder and use the same regulator. If they will, you could try both methods.

The N2 is not easily dissolved into the beer so you can achieve higher pressures in your keg without over carbonating your beer. This is useful for when you have to push your beer a long way through the lines, say 50-100 feet. If you used enough CO2 to get the beer to the other end, you would have nothing but foam at the tap. The nitrogen allows the higher pressures.

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